Seconds from disaster: From a last wedding snap in a doomed helicopter to a selfie moments before a deadly twister – the stories behind haunting final images

Seconds from disaster: From a last wedding snap in a doomed helicopter to a selfie moments before a deadly twister – the stories behind haunting final images

They are photographs that freeze time, images captured in a heartbeat now immortalised as eerie memorials to lives lost.

From smiling selfies to candid snaps, these final photos of people taken mere moments before their deaths are as haunting as they are heart-wrenching.

Some show couples in high spirits, laughing with loved ones and enjoying holidays, unaware of the cruel twist fate was about to deliver. Others appear unsettling in hindsight with shaking helicopters and locations that would later become scenes of unimaginable tragedy.